MoEF silence holds up rehab on CRZ plot for PAPs

Navi Mumbai airport - Order after change in coastal area protection norms in 2011.

The land, measuring 57 heactares, is in Wadghar village. (File)

The rehabilitation component of the Navi Mumbai Airport project has hit a roadblock as a major portion of the 57 hectares of land, meant to relocate project affected people (PAP), has been classified as no-development land, following a change in coastal area protection norms in 2011.

The Navi Mumbai Airport is one of the six projects that have been allowed to be constructed on CRZ-1 land under the 2011 notification. The state government has now asked that the exemption granted to the core airport land be extended to the 57-hectare land in Wadghar village meant to rehabilitate PAPs. The Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) is yet to take a decision on freeing land from CRZ restrictions, despite the state government’s recent representations to the Prime Minister’s Office and the ministry.

Traditionally, in Navi Mumbai, the High Tide Line (HTL), which is the marker of CRZ-1, has been delineated on the basis of bunds and flapgates. Following the Coastal Regulations Zone (CRZ) notification of 2011, which classifies coastal land as CRZ-1 based on its salinity concentration, the Wadghar land has been rendered into a no-development plot. The land is one of the many that was acquired by the Navi Mumbai’s planning agency City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO).

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“The ingress of creek water in the Wadghar land occurred as local fishermen broke the bunds for shallow water fishing,” said a senior CIDCO official. The official explained that while initially the bunds were repaired from time to time, it had to be left untouched after a 2005 high court order prevented the state government from doing anything that stopped flow of water to mangroves. “Since then the mangroves have increased manifold as the land is at a lower level than Ghadi river. We have asked the MoEF to allow us to construct on inland mangrove land,” said the official.

Besides, the airport project rehabilitation plot, a total of 1,240 hectares of land in Navi Mumbai, has also been affected by CRZ-1 for the past two years, resulting in a potential loss of Rs 37,200 crore. Wadghar is one of the three villages in Navi Mumbai where people from the 10 villages affected by the airport project will be shifted to. The setback comes in the background of CIDCO announcing that it would be issuing Request for Qualification (RFQ) documents on February 5 to start work of the greenfield airport.

shalini.nair@expressindia.com

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